Why I will never ever do weddings

Kev M

Kev M

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WARNING-There's going to be some self-indulgent spleen venting going on so you might want to go back now.

Last night I went to a dinner dance trophy presentation for the regional autocross championship. Originally I was just going to take some photos of the presentation and if people wanted them they could buy them. No pressure. I turn up and get the chairman to show me around the room where it was all happening before it all started so I could get some rough settings for the camera. I was surprised at just how fancy the place looked, I'd seen photos from the previous year and was expecting something similar which wasn't that much but this time was in a totally different league. But I'd got some settings and was happy. It was at this point that the chairman says he wants about 15 photos for the class winners and some miscellaneous trophies that will be paid for by the championship fund. We agreed on a price, nothing extortionate, something that reflects the fact that I'm an amatuer and just want some money to help out with new kit, not pay the mortgage.

Dinner over and the presentation starts, I get up and make my way to the dance floor to take the photos. Everything is fine, shooting in RAW and underexposing slightly and a couple of hours later it's over and I go back to my table. The guy sitting next to me asks to look at the photo of him and the trophy and immediately orders one for a tenner. Good start I think. An hour or so later I get home and look at the photos on the camera again, this time zooming in to the faces. :bang: :bang: :bang: :bang: :bang: :bang: On about 10 of the photos, including the one that I've taken money for, the AF has picked up the wall behind and not the faces. Not the cameras fault, mine, it only does what I tell it. A combination of low light and my eyesite meant it looked alright in the viewfinder and I get home to find otherwise.

I'm angry, mostly through disapointment. I've let myself down, I've let the chairman down and I've let the people down who might have been hoping to get a decent picture. I've never once said I was a professional, I've always been honest but people see you with an SLR and a website and they have certain expectations, I've stood up in the middle of the room and and made a complete arse of myself. Effing charlatan.

Just like a wedding, it's something that can't be gone back to and shot again, which is why I will never ever do weddings.







Told you it was going to be self indulgent.:bang: :bang: :bang: :bang:
 
i feel your pain.

i tried a wedding and had similar results on some of the shots.

give them a try in ps.....you might be able to save some, or at least mke them passable.
 
I know exactly how you feel, I've only ever assisted at weddings (when film was the norm, and digital was in its real infancy) I could feel the pressure, and I wasnt even taking any pics!
 
I can well imagine how you feel, you must be as sick as a parrot. :(

I'm not trying to be a smart arse after the event Kevin, but I'm a specs wearer, and the beauty of AF is that it doesn't actually matter whether the image in the finder appears sharp or not, it's far more important to have the correct AF point selected, probably the centre one only for jobs like that, and recompose after you've obtained focus if necessary.

As a specs wearer you have two choices with the dioptre adjustment in the viewfinder - either set it so the viewfinder is sharp with specs or without. I prefer the former as that way I can still adjust camera settings on the exterior screens when my eye is away from the viewfinder.

People will probably be more understanding than you think, but you're gonna have to just put your hands up and come clean. How bad are the pics, any chance they can be rescued?

We've all cocked up at some stage and it's experiences like this which drive home the biggest lessons and make us togs in the end. ;)
 
Thanks guys.

The problem I have is that the diopeter adjustment isn't enough. Even with my glasses on, which suggests my prescrition might need renewing and with my glasses off (which I prefer) it's miles out so manual focus is a no no. I think I was thinking too much about it. Using either the centre AF point or the one above it and focusing on the faces trying to ensure sharp eyes, I think it was trying to focus on the faces which meant I picked up the wall to the side by accident. Should have gone for the body instead. Just like when you're trying to shoot someone(y)
 
i must admit; my camera stays on the center point by default.

it's so easy to get caught up with the moment and you overlook the basics.

good luck with it
 
Ouch, feel for you on that one. Thats why I'm kind of glad I have a very simple rule 'I dint do people photographs'. Not even candids, I just don't feel comfortable with it:(
 
Focusing on the faces is the right way, but you need to be in Single Shot AF Mode, that way, as long as you keep the shutter half depressed you maintain focus lock and can safely recompose your shot regardless of where it then puts the AF point.

If you use Servo focusing, the lens willl be continually re-focusing with the shutter half depressed, and cause problems like the one you've encountered.
 
WetSparks said:
Ouch, feel for you on that one. Thats why I'm kind of glad I have a very simple rule 'I dint do people photographs'. Not even candids, I just don't feel comfortable with it:(
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Sounds like a good rule, but I need to get outof my comfort zone if I'm going to improve. Perhaps in future I'll do it less publicly.

CT said:
Focusing on the faces is the right way, but you need to be in Single Shot AF Mode, that way, as long as you keep the shutter half depressed you maintain focus lock and can safely recompose your shot regardless of where it then puts the AF point.

If you use Servo focusing, the lens willl be continually re-focusing with the shutter half depressed, and cause problems like the one you've encountered.
Click to expand...

Defo didn't have it on servo mode I just had trouble picking out the off centre focus point in the viefinder because it was so dark. Centre point only for me in future.
 
Nightmare stuff - and I can sympathise too - I did our speedway press day at the start of the season and had a nightmare - took me hours back home to rescue a lot of the shots in PS. The reason? I was absolutely s*****g myself with nerves beforehand and quite simply cocked up the camera settings - managed to shoot half the day in AI servo rather than one shot - oh, and with the ISO set wrong too. NOT a good combination. Realised part way through what I'd done but - like you - not something I could go back and do again.

Stick one of yours up somewhere and let some of the PS whizzes on here have a play - you'll be surprised what can be acheived!
 
my worst mistake to date saw me using the widest aperture available in an attempt to gather light........the results were poor.

shallow depth of field on a bride with her father in the wedding car; which totally threw the father of the bride in to a cracking blur :D doesn't look good in an album :eek:

it's not that noticable during a chimping session and un noticable at all in the view finder
 
Horrifying experience mate...I'm sure all the pros have done something like that at one time or other. I remember a wedding I did last year, in focus but terrible shots for another reason, squinting at the sun. :bang: ......The good news is... you'll not be doing that again, even if you are in a hurry. :D

I feel your pain too. :(
 
mho01 said:
you can get diffrent strength ones from Canon
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That'll learn me for buying KM. You can get them for KM too but they're pretty rare and I need a new glasses prescription too. Guess I'll be doing that this week. I wish I'd shot smaller than 2.8 but like DF I was chasing light. Atleast I didn't shoot at 1.7, that would have got the wallpaper sharp and turned the faces into nice bokeh blobs. Roll on christmas when I can get myslef a flash with me pennies whcih in theory I hope will let me shoot smaller apertures. Either that or it's something else for me to get wrong.
 
I took a whole portrait session at 2.8 and it was nowhere near as sharp as I wouldve liked. Id been playing around with the camera and it was set on tv for some reason,,, the shutterspeed stayed the same but the aperture moved about all over the place.
I managed to sort it out in photoshop,,, but ooooh that was a close one so I can imagine how you feel.
I hope it helps a tiny bit for you to know that lots of us have done it and you are not alone by any means. :shake:
 
It does a bit thanks Janice, I'm now trying to think of a way to recompense people and keep some credibility.
 
Kev Mills said:
It does a bit thanks Janice, I'm now trying to think of a way to recompense people and keep some credibility.
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Kev is there any way you can reshoot the pics? Many a wedding tog has had to get people to dess up and go through the motions all over again. Thankfully, I'm not one of them - but it happens. :)
 
Kev Mills said:
Defo didn't have it on servo mode I just had trouble picking out the off centre focus point in the viefinder because it was so dark. Centre point only for me in future.
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One of the nice things about the 1 Series Canons is you can choose to have the selected AF spot permanently lit in the viewfinder (Custom Function) and even adjust how bright it is.
 
Kev, Does your Minolta camera have the option to select the focus point? My canon is set set to use only the centre focus point (of 7 arranged in a cross shape). That way the camera focuses on what I point it at not at something away off to the side.
 
I did exactly the same trick about 8 years ago at the inlaws ruby wedding. Plus I ran out of film half way through :nono: :nono: and didnt realize that I'd ****ed it up until I got the prints back.
No where to hide or run... can still remember the embarrasing silence.:embarrassed:

Ever since then I make sure that I leave it on center focus or on the top point (otherwise I've a tendancy to miss the feet on full body shots).

Live and learn.
 
Kev,

I feel for you.

All I can say is I am sorry - but try and learn from it.

Thats what it is all about. You wont do it again.
 
I actually winced as I read this, and like everyone else I really feel for you.
Tbh, its just the sort of thing that would happen to me, so as yet Ive really shied away from corporate/event type stuff.
Hope you manage to salvage something in PS.
 
Well at least you have learned from your mistake, so all is not lost, Im afraid that anybody pro or am that says that they have never f##### up is either lying or takes pics of really boring stuff.
I remember doing a shoot for 3 national papers when mrs Thatcher visited Hillsborough and when the counter got to 38 shots I realised I had no film in the camera. It NEVER happened again.
 
Tell them the camera mysteriously reformatted the card and you lost them all...

I feel for you I really do - we used to tell people in the old days that the negs had been lost in the soup etc.
It always meant we'd back-focussed the images or something.
I know exactly the feeling of your blood running cold and the prickling of sweat all round the armpits and back as you looked at the images and realised what you'd done, whispering 'No...no...no...no...NO-OOOOOOO...'
 
Righty, I havnt read through the rest of comments so replying to your OP.

First of all, if you carry on with the 'I am not going to do weddings now' attitude it will have a big blow on your ability to take the camera out and get some shots. There will always be times where things go wrong, you just have to face the facts and say 'f'k it, it went wrong, chin up' and carry on. I started doing weddings when I was 16 years old. Using a Praktica MTL 3 and a Carl Zeiss 50mm 1.8 lens. It was ALL manual. Yes, I admit I f'ked up a few shots and upset a few brides. These things happen. At your next event,use the burst mode and take 3-5 shots of your subject, always keep an eye on the focus. If need be use manual as DSLR's tend to hunt in low light/cant obtain focus. But seriuosly, dont go feeling gloom/dissapointed in yourself, you should be saying right, this is where I need to improve, then go practice.

I say well done for turning up and doing them in first place, no matter what line of work your in there is always margain for error.

King.
 
Yes... Get back on the Horse, mate. We've ALL done it at one time or another.
 
Thanks for the kind words and re-assurances everyone that I'm not the only one to have cocked up like this and cheers King Boru for the well meaning kick up the ass.
 
I did a job using a Hasselblad a few years back - at Hereford - it was a group of very very senior members of the defence and intelligence community.
You guessed it - no film in the magazine - I'd put the wrong one on the camera - the one with film in was still in the Billy-Bag.

It took me two hours to summon enough courage to telephone the CO of 22SAS and tell him the good news.

His reaction? "T**t!" and put the phone down.

Every time he saw me thereafter he would ask me if I had any film on me.
 
Arkady said:
His reaction? "T**t!" and put the phone down.
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PMSL. :LOL:

I 've lost count of the number of times I've started to take wedding groups with the lens cap on. Nobody takes the **** much at all! :D
 
Kev Mills said:
Thanks for the kind words and re-assurances everyone that I'm not the only one to have cocked up like this and cheers King Boru for the well meaning kick up the ass.
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Not a problem, always look ahead, not behind :)

Glad you took it the right way aswell, I am known to be quite blunt,... :)

King.
 
CT said:
PMSL. :LOL:

I 've lost count of the number of times I've started to take wedding groups with the lens cap on. Nobody takes the **** much at all! :D
Click to expand...

There was a guy at the zoo meet a few months ago who did similar.

He wandered up with his big camera and monopod waiting for the specticle bears to appear, when one came into site he rattled off a few frames with the cap still on.:bonk:

I was laughing so much I nearly fell off the wall and into their enclousure. Not even I'm that bad :LOL:
 
Amusing thread despite sad start. I too have been there. I bought a Mamiya 645 body & lens "back in the day" and could not afford a decent light meter. As an experiment I turned up at a friend's wedding with it and on seeing this large lump of camera thought I knew how to use it so asked me to to get him some shots.

Well all the shots were lovely except one mistake - every single shot was over a stop and a half underexposed - on Velvia!! He has just started talking to me :shrug:

Don't take as long as I did before you are confidently lifting a camera in front of people!! :shake:
 
We've all done similar:
Lens caps on :embarrassed:
Wrong ISO setting :embarrassed:
Wrong focus point :embarrassed:
Forgotten to charge batteries :embarrassed:
Front/Rear curtain flash sync :embarrassed:
And many more

Just take it as a learning experience, it will hurt for a while but the chances of you doing it again will be greatly reduced for it - just chin up and keep snapping.

(y)
 
Just a quick one then I can put this experiance to bed. It seems that most fo the shots I'm being paid to take are fine it's the ones I wasn't that seems most effected however there are a few of the paid ones that aren't accepatable. I'm not going to charge for the ones that don't meet my standards but should I give them out anyway (the passable but less than sharp ones) as a gesture of good will or should they be consigned to the bin for eternity?
 
Bin 'em Kev. Don't let your cock ups see the light of day if you don't have to. ;)
 
Cheers mate, I thought that might be the case but wasn't sure if it would make a good will gesture or not. Into the shredder they go.
 
ooh yes, never show duff images to prospective clients: blame the wife, blame the kids, blame global warming, but never admit you make mistakes, ever.
 
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